by the way, "the washington post's" chris cillizza reports that pro-romney outside groups have paid for three out of four of the ads supporting him in this election cycle while probama outside groups have paid for one in every five ads backing the president. the conservative groups, cillizza writes, "have kept romney in the game" and he should be able to "outspend obama rather significantly in the final weeks of the race." so whether you want to call it an arms race, a plague of biblical proportions, or the death spiral of democracy, take it seriously. especially all that secret money. it's poison being mainlined into our country's arteries, as destructive as arsenic in your drinking water. and you'll never know who put it there. no one knows the ins-and-outs of this cash-and-carry racket better than trevor potter, and no one is more committed to cleaning it up. a former chairman of the federal election commission, he served as general counsel to john mccain during the senator's presidential campaigns in 2000 and again in 2008. t trevor potter is with the law firm of caplin and drysdale